With the rise of AI technology, many brokerage firms and other logistics companies are still trying to figure out what new tools they need to keep a competitive edge. As with any technological disruption, it can be difficult to distinguish legitimately helpful products from the ones that simply take advantage of the trends.
Dhruv Gupta, CEO of Drumkit, encourages brokers and 3PLs to thoroughly explore and understand their workflow bottlenecks in order to make novel AI technology work most effectively.
Gupta has spent his whole academic and professional career interested in optimizing transportation and logistics. “I was that nerd kid in high school, and I always thought trucks and trains were just cool,” he said. “I took that forward throughout college, and so I’ve been building stuff in the transportation space my whole career.”
Much of the public, Gupta says, discounts how important transportation and infrastructure are. “Whether it’s commuting or getting the goods and services they need, most people don’t think about the supply chain or transportation until it stops working,” Gupta said. “When it works, it hums in the background and it’s the backbone of any economy, but when it doesn’t, you see really quickly how much it brings things to a halt.”
After working at multiple startups and in sectors like last-mile logistics, all surrounded by software, Gupta understood where and how he and his team could best put their talents to use. They have been building what’s now called Drumkit for the past few years and pivoted into their current product lineup about 18 months ago.
Right now, many brokers are trying to answer the question, “How do I use AI in my brokerage, and is it even worth it?” Between data analysis, chatbots, workflow automation and more, it can be difficult for brokers to determine a practical approach that meets their needs.
Before implementing AI, Gupta says, take a step back. “What is holding you back from growing?” he asked. “Are you not reaching enough potential customers, or are you failing to offer the right rates? Is it that your team can’t handle all the check calls and scheduling that they have to do? Are you having trouble managing carrier capacity or sales?”
Figuring out your bottleneck first, according to Gupta, can help you determine how to leverage new technology to find a solution. “If that solution happens to involve AI, that’s great, but you don’t need to find an excuse to use AI,” he said.
“AI will find its place when you try to solve your pain points,” Gupta said. “I’m not in the business of trying to peddle AI. I’m in the business of solving your workflow problems, and AI is one new tool that we can use.”
Sometimes, simply improving elements of your workflow like your use of spreadsheets or your standard procedures can be better timesavers than new tools.
The best approach, according to Gupta, is to start with the problem and figure out the solution incrementally. “Try fixing one variable at a time,” he said. “If you start by saying, ‘I need AI in my brokerage,’ that doesn’t really mean anything and you might not solve your issues.”
If you’re struggling with appointment scheduling problems, for instance, it might be best to start by examining your procedures. Who is in charge of that scheduling, and does that role need to be adjusted?
“Focus on yourself first,” Gupta said. “Don’t focus on what else is out there. It’s worth knowing what other companies are doing, but you have to make tools work for you and your situation. Otherwise, you’ll just be a hammer looking for a nail.”
“You should think of technology as a ladder,” he said. “Start with the basic solutions you can implement using what you have at your disposal. As you want to scale up, that’s where tools like Drumkit can really optimize your productivity. Give us a call, and we’ll help you automate what you’re already doing.”
Drumkit is designed to increase productivity in a variety of ways, such as helping to process emails 10 times faster with workflow automations specifically designed for logistics. Freight forwarders and brokers work with Drumkit to save time and book more loads.
To demonstrate Drumkit’s advantages, Gupta laid out an example of how its automation tools have helped customers. “We work with brokers who handle 40,000 loads per month,” Gupta said. “Before they used Drumkit, their win rate was approximately 10%, but the bigger problem is that they were only responding to about 40% of available shipments.”
“That’s probably for various reasons,” Gupta said. “Sometimes you don’t see all of the available loads, or you don’t want to cover a particular lane. No matter the reason, if you can bump response rate up by a couple percent with one tool, the net value to your bottom line – or your top line, in this case – goes up dramatically.”
With Drumkit’s AI automation tools, brokers can dramatically accelerate response rate, even without changing the win rate. Interestingly, Gupta says, increasing the response rate also correlates to an increased win rate.
“It’s a win-win scenario,” Gupta said. “If you have requests you can’t process and you’re not making enough top line, an AI tool can help streamline that process, read conversations, get quotes and so on.”
When it comes to routine workflows such as track and trace or check calls, Drumkit can be a huge timesaver, and that increased efficiency is a vector for growth, according to Gupta.
“You don’t want your after-hours team to really be working that hard,” Gupta said. “You don’t want senior leadership to have to continually answer calls and emails when they’re away or when they’re networking. That’s what you want Drumkit to handle. When you have tracking automated, your team can focus on sales and expanding the business.”
Part of Drumkit’s mission is to help brokers optimize ROI per employee. If, instead of making check calls, an employee can spend time solving a more complex problem, that’s a service level increase for the customer. “That means retention will be higher and they’ll like working with you, and that’s only a good thing for you,” Gupta said.
Automation doesn’t remove any responsibilities, but it does enable employees to accomplish more in a given day when the more routine tasks are taken care of.
“If you find that you have extra time in your day, go call a customer and book more business,” Gupta said. “That’s an incredible opportunity that enables you to expand. Whatever model of brokerage you have, having newfound time is an accelerant that can make you more productive in every facet of business.”
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